How to predict when you're most fertile?

1. You’re most fertile in the period 72 hours before ovulation to about 24 hours afterwards. Predicting when you’re ovulating will improve your chances of conception. Plot your most fertile time each month with our handy ovulation calculator.

2. Ovulation usually occurs 12-16 days before your next period, so if your cycle is very regular this can help you predict ovulation.

3. Physical signs you’re about to ovulate (and are therefore at your most fertile) include clear, slippery, stretchy cervical mucus and a rise in body temperature by 0.5 to 1.6 degrees.

4. Keep a daily chart of your mucus and temperature changes to keep track of your cycle and predict ovulation more easily each month.  Download a chart from motherandbabymagazine.com.

5. If that sounds a bit fiddly, ovulation prediction kits detect the surge in luteinising hormone (LH) just before ovulation. A 20 test pack costs £12.75 from accessdiagnostics.co.uk.

Real lives success story

askamum user Aneke, was told blocked tubes meant there was no chance of her conceiving naturally. She’s now pregnant with her first baby after ICSI.

‘I’ve never used contraception and never conceived, so when I married Dan, I told him there was no chance of having a baby, which we were both fine about. We’d seen lots of friends going through infertility issues and getting in such a state, mentally and financially.

Then last June I saw a gynae for an ovarian cyst and he suggested we consider an attempt at fertility treatment. So we thought about it and decided we’d do it once and if it worked, great, if it didn’t we wouldn’t worry. We felt positive but very relaxed about it.

We had intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) and they put in two fertilised embryos. I found out quite early on I was pregnant, but we did 12 tests just to make sure! We’re both over the moon and if all goes well, we’ve got four ‘frosties’ (frozen embryos), and we plan to try for a second pregnancy three months or so after the baby’s born.’

Scream for ice cream

Finally, a great excuse to tuck into the Ben and Jerry’s! It seems women who eat ice-cream and drink full-fat milk two or more times a week have a 38 per cent lower risk of ovulation related infertility, according to a new US study. Make ours a double scoop of Chunky Monkey...

One million: the number of sperm that can be produced by a man each day.

Free IVF a thing of the past?

Despite NICE guidelines, NHS cuts mean fewer and fewer couples are being offered the one recommended free cycle of IVF. The Gloucestershire Primary Care Trust is the latest to announce that it is to stop providing funding for fertility treatment.